Sweet & Sour Chilli Chicken

I’ve realised I don’t blog main meals much any more. This is partly because the light in our kitchen isn’t great once the sun goes down plus I’m not as good at making them look pretty. I happened to mention this dish on Twitter and promised to blog it.

This meal is a big favourite in our house. It’s full of flavour and I’m sure is healthier than a takeaway even with the quite high sugar content. The blog where I got this recipe from is no longer online so I’m glad I scribbled it down when I did. The original author said how it is based on a toned down recipe for General Tso Chicken that her granddad used to make at a restaurant he worked in. The only alteration I’ve made to the original recipe is to double the sauce quantities as I prefer it saucy and to add the veg. It really is delicious plus after the initial prep you can fling it in the oven and forget about it for a bit. A perfect Friday night dinner.

I usually serve with plain boiled rice, but if we’re feeling a bit naughty we’ll have it with egg fried rice. If you like it spicy add some more chillies.

Sweet & Sour Chilli ChickenServes 2-3

2 chicken fillets, diced

½ cup cornflour

2 eggs, beaten

salt & pepper

Red pepper, cut in strips

1 Red chilli, finely chopped

¾ cup of soft brown sugar

4 tbsp tomato ketchup

½ cup rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp garlic salt (if you don’t have this replace with a clove or two of garlic)

spring onions

1) Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in frying pan. Season the flour. Dip the chicken in the flour then egg. Fry until browned on each side then place in ovenproof dish. Mix the peppers and chillies in with the browned chicken.

2) In a jug mix the sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce and garlic salt. Pour over the chicken and make sure it is well coated in the sauce.

3) Bake at 180°c for an hour. Stir at 15min intervals to stop chicken sticking. Sprinkle raw spring onions over the chicken before serving.

Half a cup (125ml) of cornflour works out at around 25 tsp or 8 and a bit tbsp of flour. You don’t have to be too accurate with this as the amount you use will depend of the size of your chicken fillet.

This recipe uses fresh chillies. You could use dried chillies instead.